The Field (1990) User Reviews (57)

Tradition in the land

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 18 April 2006]

"Bull" McCabe is a proud man. All he lives for is to eke out a meager existence out of the green piece of land that has seen generations of his ancestors make something out of a small plot in rural Ireland. Like his forefathers, Bull is a tenant farmer who leases the farm from the young widow that is terrorized by Tadgh McCabe, Bull's son, who goes to her house every night to play tricks on her. This woman has had it and decides to put that land for sale in a public auction; let the higher bidder be the new owner.

The McCabe family is not exactly a happy one. There is the ghost of a young boy that killed himself under mysterious circumstances. Bull and his wife Maggie, hardly ever speak. The only reason for Bull to stay is his desire to leave the "field", as he calls the small farm, to his son. This way, the land will remain a part of the McCabe's history. Tadgh, on the other hand, is a man who doesn't share his father's desires for staying put and struggling to eke out a living out of this small farm.

Into this mixture, a new man, an American, comes to visit the area and sees the possibilities of riches that no one has seen. The "Yank" notices how he can turn the area into commercial uses, something the locals would feel horrified about what this stranger wants to do. Everyone's loyalties lie with Bull McCabe.

"The Field" points out to Ireland's unhappy past where lots of people died from famine and thousands had to abandon the country in order to survive. The ones that remained are proud, although impoverished, with deep roots to their country. How dare this foreigner come to take what they feel it's Bull's? Tragedy strikes with a confrontation between Bull and the Yank. He makes his son fight the man who wants their land. A freak accident occurs that changes everything. Bull is able to bid successfully for his field, but the main reason he has fought for, eludes him.

"The Field" is based on a play by John B. Keane, which we never saw. The writer has a clear idea about what resonates with these folks in the rural setting where he places the action. Jim Sheridan, an Irish director was the right choice for bringing this story to the screen. Elmer Bernstein's evocative music plays well with the action of the movie. Jack Conroy's cinematography contributes to create the right mood for the story.

Mr. Sheridan's biggest achievement was to give the leading role to Richard Harris, an actor that is the whole reason for watching this sad movie. Mr. Harris transforms himself into the Bull McCabe of the story. There are no false movements on his part; he is a man who will not be stopped in owning a place that has seen generations of McCabes that has worked that land. Mr. Harris dominates the film.

The supporting players are fine also. Sean Bean is seen as Tadgh, the son that doesn't share his father's love for this desolate place. Brenda Fricker is also effective as Maggie McCabe. John Hurt is seen as 'Bird' O'Donnell, the man who seems to know all the secrets of the people in the town. Tom Berenger is the Yank, and although he has a minor role, his part is pivotal to the outcome of the story. Jenny Conroy is good as Katie, the tinker.

"The Field" was Jim Sheridan's second directorial effort and it clearly showed to be the right man for showing Ireland and its people at their most proud.

Stubborn Irishman's love of the land destroys his soul...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 6 March 2007]

A more simplistic view of the Irishmen and their love of the land was voiced by Gerald O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND: "Land is the only thing worth fighting for, worth dying for." And that is precisely what the theme of THE FIELD is, with RICHARD HARRIS giving a towering performance as "Bull" McCabe, who believes with all his heart that the land he covets cannot be taken away from him by anyone else, least of all an American he calls "the Yank" (TOM BERENGER in an underwritten role).

Irish traditions and landscapes are beautifully captured by the camera in this picturesque tale, a grim tragedy that plays out like a twisted morality tale with the viewer hating what McCabe does with his strong beliefs, tainted by false values and his own uncompromising ways.

As impressive as Harris is, JOHN HURT overplays his dimwitted brother to the point where his role seems like a parody of a clumsy character. SEAN BEAN is wonderfully restrained as the brother who is uneasy with his father's strong prejudices and beliefs and would rather not fight Berenger over a piece of land.

The tale becomes a Greek tragedy once Harris allows his passionate love of the land to overcome all reason. The parish priest tells his stoic villagers that such love of the soil can destroy the soil and that's what happens here.

There are some brilliant moments including the savagely staged fight scene by the sea on a misty night, but the story (based on a play) never quite achieves a meaningful conclusion with its very downbeat ending.

Realism of most of the performances is unquestionable, but the main reason for seeing it has to be Richard Harris' unforgettable performance as an Irishman who lets "the field" destroy his reasoning to the point of madness.

Terrific performances, scenery, tragic, tragic, tragic

[ariostel · 8/10 · 17 February 2005]

Riveting performances by Richard Harris, Sean Bean, and John Hurt (nearly unrecognizable!) in a dark, tragic tale of life in post-famine Ireland. This is the perfect film to launch a film discussion group with. There's plenty to talk about after viewing it, that's for sure. It's not what I'd call an "intellectual" film, but it's definitely memorable. If you're an American, like me, and you saw John Hurt as Caligula in the PBS series "I, Claudius"--you won't believe his performance in "The Field". Amazing. (Note from my wife to Beanstalkers: There are a couple of scenes...) Details? The horses pulling the gypsy wagons are the right breed. And in the pub scenes, you can almost taste the beer.

A true representation about the trials and tribulations of the Irish people.

[ctheslayer · 15 February 2003]

While studying in Ireland, the subject of movies about - or filmed in - Ireland came up often with the locals. From Dublin to Galway, the movie mentioned most often was "The Field." Controversial and yet considered to be one of the truest representations of the Irish people of that era. It's also one of the few stories told about those who stayed behind during the famine, and survived. If you're looking for a feel-good movie about leprechauns, this ain't it. If you're up for "Gangs of New York" or "Legends of the Fall," you can handle it. Incredible performances by the late, Great Richard Harris and Sean Bean.

Great movie until last 20 minutes

[dwarol · 7/10 · 1 February 2009]

I found this movie riveting up until the last 20 minutes or so. After the priest closes the gates to the church, the rest of it degenerates into a poor attempt at Greek tragedy, with Bull having everything stripped from him. There was no need to destroy the man further after losing Tadgh to the Tinker girl and pushing away his wife's one last attempt at reconciliation. Nothing was gained artistically in my view, and that part of the plot made little sense.

For example, the body of the American was picked up from a lake just outside Bull's house (the image of the American hanging from the hook and the echo with Shamey's hanging brilliantly suggests all the guilt Bull must be feeling). Along with the donkey's carcass even if it's not proof Bull did the murder, he should have been held for questioning given everything else. Instead, he is allowed to freely walk around and get himself into further trouble.

Little things also got in the way for me. For one, the field was just too small, both to support Bull or to support a mill to grind limestone into roadbed. The herd of Bull's cattle he was driving at the end was just too large for the field to feed, and no single man on foot could have driven them a long distance over rocky ground to the edge of a cliff (not to mention previous scenes had shown the path between the field and the sea did not go through the village). Nobody who had ever grown up around cattle such as Tadgh would ever think to get in front of a stampede, even in grief. It would be like someone who grew up in a city jumping in front of a locomotive running at a high speed to stop someone on the train. It just isn't done unless you are suicidal and I don't think Tadgh was at that point. As someone who is actually familiar with that kind of life, director Sheridan's lack of attention to detail suggests someone who really didn't understand farming or who ultimately only really cared about the psychodrama at the story's center. As a result, he only did an adequate job of fleshing out the play into a movie.

Still, the acting was excellent throughout as was Sheridan's direction of the actors. The dark layers underneath Bull's life and family were expertly stripped away as the movie progressed. It was a little like seeing the Irish version of "Long Day's Journey into Night". As someone who grew up on a farm, I understand Bull's love/hate relationship with land that he has worked for decades. It really is like raising another member of the family, and no other movie I can think of has ever shown this better than the moving speech Bull gives at one point (I have to wonder if this speech is a carryover from the original play given Sheridan's missteps in showing farming). And the depiction of the grinding poverty of rural Ireland, the entanglement of ancient wrongs on current family lives, and the ambiguous relationship Bull had with the Church all were in accord with my readings of Irish history (and this is an area in which I'm sure Sheridan and playwright Keane are expert).

Richard Harris - Incredible!!!

[raymond_chandler · 9/10 · 31 July 2001]

If you are interested in acting, do yourself a favor - see this movie. Richard Harris' performance is as good as film acting gets. His character, Bull McCabe, is not a man so much as a force of nature. In the opening sequence, he and his son, Tadgh, who is 30ish to Bull's sixty-something, are carrying heavy loads of seaweed from the ocean back to their farm. Bull casually strolls along, seemingly without effort, while Tadgh struggles and stops periodically to rest. This scene sets the tone for the rest of the story. No one in the village ever opposes Bull - it would be futile, as well as unwise. But when the land his family has tended for generations as tenant farmers is purchased by an American bent on developing it, Bull must confront something he cannot defeat with will and sinew - progress.

"The Field" is a study of a very specific time and place, with plot developments that seem lifted straight out of the Old Testament. Sheridan does an excellent job of opening up the story, which was adapted from a stage play. The action takes place all over the village and surrounding areas. The cast is composed of Irish and English actors (except for - ahem - 'The American'), which really gives the film a strong sense of authenticity. Each character has a story, and the gradual unfolding of the various conflicts and secrets builds an ominous sense of impending disaster.

John Hurt gives another in a long line of outstanding performances, but this film belongs to Harris. The only thing that keeps it from becoming an all-time classic is Tom Berenger. We get no sense that he wants the field for any reason other than the script requires him to, and it seems that director Jim Sheridan knew it. When a central character (Berenger) in a film delivers his most important dialogue FACING AWAY FROM THE CAMERA (looking out a window), it is the directorial equivalent of punting. Even so, Berenger is not in enough scenes to ruin the movie. It is just that it could have been so much better if he brought something to the part that could match up with Harris' primal force.

Overwrought and ultimately unsatisfying. But it's saved by the peformances

[Coffee_in_the_Clink · 6/10 · 2 February 2021]

This is not a film I would sit through again. Apart from the great performances from Richard Harris (who is outstanding as Bull McCabe), a brooding supporting performance from a very fresh-faced Sean Bean and a dapper performance from Tom Berenger, I ultimately found this film to be disappointing.

The opening with McCabe and his dim son collecting seaweed after dumping a dead donkey into the ocean accompanied by beautiful Irish music and scenery was remarkable. McCabe has been farming a plot of lad on a rented field for years now, and the revelation that it is to be sold by the widow owner in a public auction to the highest bidder makes the local gossip and stirs up tension. When a dapper looking Irish American (Tom Berenger) arrives in the town looking to buy the field, tensions reach breaking point.

Unfortunately, the material is not handed all that well and this really plays second-fiddle between two great films that Jim Sheridan made ("My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father"). The murder of the American is not done all that well and looks very far-fetched. That was a major contention for me. It drags on a little towards the end but Richard Harris is really to be highly commended and deserved his Oscar nomination. The ending is shocking and nerve rattling, and what a great final scene it is. It is just a pity that the majority of the rest of the film does not live up to it.

A rich adaption of an Irish stage classic

[mulhollandman · 10/10 · 10 September 2006]

John B. Keane's critically acclaimed play The Field, is the one play that 90% of the population of Ireland will know. They will either know the plot or have studied it for state exams. My own grandmother is 80 years of age and she dislikes any kind of media and theater describing them as pure noise. But when she hears that The Field is playing she will instantly take an interest not because of it's fame but the themes that are produced in this play are very important to her and her generation and many generation that followed her up until the late 1980's when Ireland slowly began to change into a European union state, with it Irelands ethnic identity began to disappear. We may still have the accent but our lifestyles and attitudes are very different in some cases evidently for the better, but more often then not for the worst. In the early 90's two films documented the Ireland of old, these were The Commitments a joyous look at young Irish people using their musical talents to broaden their horizons and The Field an unforgiving bleak look at the life of a headstrong farmer whose life begins to falter when a stranger arrives in his village. Arrival of the stranger symbolizing change. A change that could disrupt the harmonious existence of life in the little village long after this stranger has gone.

Bull McCabe is a poor Irish farmer that works a rented field. This Field represents everything that has happened in the Bulls life. His families blood is soaked in the field. He rents it from a local Irish Widow who the Field belonged to her late husband. All the Bull wants now is to own this precious land. He has worked this field for many years. He brings seaweed from the coast line every day and plants it on the grass to enhance it's fertility giving it the freshest looking grass. To look at the Bulls special field we know that it takes years to attain that result and what's more any dereliction in maintaining the field will result in the field acquiring the same unfertile status as the surrounding land. When The Bull speaks about the field there is no pride but it is replaced by a nostalgic tone. His nostalgic tones also produce a chilling portrait of a man who is willing to stop at nothing to protect the field that is dear to him. When the actions of his son lead to the widow selling the Bulls precious field at public auction. The Bull comes face to face with losing his field to an American.

Jim Sheridan's direction is magnificent and his script (totally unlike the stage version) is also brilliant. Playing the Bull is legendary thespian Richard Harris whose fiery temperament and personal beliefs match that of The Bull. Harris's reputation of being difficult and uncompromising attitude nearly cost him role. A role that was originally going to the late great Ray McNally who unfortunately died before filming commenced. Today I cannot imagine The Bull being played by anyone other than Richard Harris. His portrayal of The Bull McCabe is that of being a brutally uncompromising farmer. A farmer despite his evident aggression had vision and respect for the earth he walked on. A farmer who would kill for you if it was needed or kill you if the tables were reversed. For me personally this is Harris's best role because with every word and action on screen I see that Harris is truly immersed in the role of the Bull.

Sheridan is in my opinion is Irelands Best Director. He uses the theme of the relationships between Irish father and son in all his films. In this film we learn about a stubborn man whose materialistic desires and expectations of his surviving son lead to horrible catastrophic results that affect the a community. The son in this film is Tadgh who is played Sean Bean. Unfortunately with all Sheridans films the supporting cast who are always very strong are overshadowed by one performance. In this film Bean is very under rated. His portrayal of Tadgh is that of a loner who is uncomfortable with the expectations of his father The Bull. These expectations lead him to develop an eagerness to please his father and lift of some of the burden that these expectations place on his own life. Also in the cast is excellent Tom Berenger who portrays an eager yank whose only hope is for his ancestors town land to prosper with his investment in the Bulls field. Berenger's yank character is very similar to that of Tadgh. He has returned not only to see his ancestors home place prosper but he too is doing it to please his families expectations back in America. Both men are determined to succeed in their respective duties. Berenger captures exactly what we Irish dislike about Irish American's coming to Ireland and that is their naive approach to a country they know very little about. A mistake that Berenger's character makes with his airs and graces.

As an Irish Film The Field is the best by a long shot. The script is good, the cast are excellent but most importantly it succeeds in drawing you into it but the strength of the story alone. It has not been bestowed the same commercial success as Sheridans other films for one reason. This reason is that the film contains a lot of Irish traits such as attitudes to strangers, the churches stance on suicide and many hidden references to Irish History. To me personally this is not a fault of the film, but a fault of peoples ignorance to ethnic film makers who want to tell stories from their ethnic back ground. All together a very fine film full of very fine performances. 10 out of 10

THE FIELD (Jim Sheridan, 1990) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 8 February 2009]

Being an avid follower of the Oscars ever since the 1984 ceremony has sometimes served to alert me about small movies which had nevertheless obtained at least one major accolade; this powerful Irish drama was just such a case and, appropriately enough, it has taken me all of 18 years to finally watch it! Richard Harris deservedly received his second personal Academy Award nomination (and the film's sole Oscar nod) for his riveting portrayal of an old farmer who is not about to let a visiting Irish-American (Tom Berenger) take away the titular plot of land which he has slaved for years over to breathe new life into. The colorful cast of characters is rounded up by John Hurt (as the mischievous village idiot), Brenda Fricker (as Harris' wife – whom he has not spoken to for 18 years, since the accidental death of his son, despite still living under the same roof with her), Sean Bean (as Harris' immature other offspring) and Jenny Conroy (as the sultry village hussy whom Bean eventually takes up with over Harris' objections). The film – which opens with the startling donkey disposal incident and closes with the mass suicide of a herd of cows that has tragic consequences – is often beautiful to look and has a fine Elmer Bernstein score into the bargain but, truthfully, its real trump card remains, as I mentioned above, Harris' tour-de-force central performance.

Stunning and unforgettable

[hitchs · 9/10 · 18 February 2002]

I had never heard of The Field before, and I could hardly believe how good it is. What a shame that it is so little known. The story starts out slowly but builds up to a climax that is perfectly logical, totally based on character, and awesome in its intensity.

The script is superb, particularly in that use of language at which the best Irish writers are unsurpassed. But the real strength of the movie lies in the amazing performance of Richard Harris, surely one of the all-time great movie performances. He should easily have won the Oscar over Jeremy Irons in Reversal of Fortune, brilliant though Irons is; perhaps Irons only won because too few people had seen The Field. Bull McCabe is a great character who is being torn apart by conflicting emotions: his love for the land, his love for his son, his love for God and for the Church, and his frustration at never being able to achieve what is important to him. His devastation at the end reminded me a lot of King Lear, and indeed this movie has a power like one of the best of Shakespeare's tragedies. As one reviewer has already noted, the only weakness is the poorly-sketched character of the American and its lack of a believable motivation. Even with that weakness, it rises far above most of what passes for serious drama these days.

I am uncertain about the beard.

[info-au-gay · 7/10 · 2 February 2010]

Like JJ, I met John B. (Keane).

And, like all good Irish publicans, he greeted all his customers like old friends.

After the curtain came down, during Writers' Week in Listowel, there was only one place to be.

"The Field" is generally regarded as Keane's greatest achievement. He was certainly aware of that fact and had denied it to The Southern Theatre Company (STC), who had opened all, or most, of his other works. But "The Field" was not "Many Young Girls of Twenty" and, for Keane, there was only one "Bull McCabe" - Ray McAnally.

Keane was right to wait for McAnally.

This was a portrayal of immense power and menace and McAnally literally terrified the audience, such was the intensity of his acting. One left the theater exhausted, yet exhilarated.

Bad feeling followed between Keane & Jamas N Healy (Hayley as he was called), the leading actor in the STC. I knew him well & he told me that he could do Bull McCabe as well as any one.

Maybe; I never saw him try it.

But McAnally's performance - and I went back a second time - has been burned into my consciousness.

He finally achieved the fame & honors that were long overdue and his portrayal of Harry Perkins - in "A Very British Coup" - must stand as one of the finest pieces of character-acting on record.

But his Bull McCabe was incomparable; definitive - almost impossible to follow.

I also met Richard (Dicky) Harris - a fine actor (This Sporting Life - a wonderful portrayal of macho tenderness)- and he was, perhaps fortunate that McAnally's performance had not transferred to film.

But good an actor as Harris was, he missed the menace.

And I am uncertain about that beard. In my experience, farmers of that period were always beardless; unshaven perhaps, but I felt that Harris looked a bit like Charlton Heston, hamming-up the division of the Red Sea on some back lot in Hollywood, & the performance lost credibility because of that.

Maybe Jim Sheridan would disagree?

Sorry, JJ; a good effort, but beards are for trade-union agitators; Fidel lookalikes & revivalist preachers.

Not hard-working Kerry farmers.

A tour de force for Richard Harris

[tommx · 8/10 · 27 February 2006]

This films greatness mostly comes from Richard Harris' performance as "The Bull" McCabe. Every moment he spends on the screen (and he is in most of the scenes of this film) literally vibrates with power and energy.

Harris is most definitely the power behind this film, and the role of the Bull McCabe was made for him. The Bull is a powerful man driven by contradictory passions and haunted by dreams he refuses to admit to and isolation that he has imposed upon himself. He is a man who is feared and respected by the townsfolk, who openly mocks the church, who despises foreigners with what he considers righteous anger, and who hasn't spoken to his wife in 18 years. He has practically no real connection to his son who desperately craves his approval and attention but is also bitter towards his father for his neglect, and acts out by terrorizing the widow who owns the field that is his father's life. (Encouraged by "the Bird" who is little more than a petty thug and lackey of the Bull).

What makes Bull such a compelling character is that while he is a powderkeg waiting to explode, he has certain morals that he clings to as dearly as he does to the land. At a critical point in the story, when the widow publicly sets a minimum reserve price on her field at a price that the Bull can not afford without gutting his own resources, he steps up to her defense when one of the townsfolk hurls a clump of mud at her. It is made clear that this is not a token gesture, but an expression of his deeply held belief that nothing justifies violence toward a woman. This and many other paradoxes in Bull's nature form the basis of what we eventually come to understand is his descent into madness. As strong as the Bull is in body, his mind has slowly eroded over a period of years torn down by isolation and guilt, and when he finally does break, the result is disastrous beyond all imagining.

Richard Harris makes this film worth watching. Without him in it, the film would not be half as good as it is. While the supporting cast is very good, Richard Harris is the reason to see this film.

Irish misfortune

[mjneu59 · 6/10 · 17 November 2010]

Richard Harris plays a crusty old Irish farmer, who after a lifetime spent tending a small plot of land for an English widow defies anyone to challenge his right to ownership when the property is offered for sale by public auction, but meets unexpected competition from a greedy American developer intent on paving it. How the Irishman finally acquires his precious field, and at what cost, makes for an often powerful drama, but everything after the auction itself is absurd anti-climax, piling tragedy upon tragedy for at least a full half hour of surplus screen time. The story is, of course, analogous to the much larger conflict between Ireland and Britain, suggesting that the Irish, with their near-obsessive attachment to the land, can at times be their own worst enemy. Tom Berenger's Ugly American is nothing more than a two-dimensional Yankee stereotype, and Elmer Bernstein's music score is all wrong, but the final, striking image of Harris trying in vain to hold back the tide aptly illustrates the futility of his challenging the inevitable.

When Bad Things Happen To Bad People

[slokes · 3/10 · 27 February 2011]

Watching this movie, I was put to mind of another film, Mel Brooks' classic "Blazing Saddles." In it, there's a scene where Slim Pickens tells Harvey Korman they should attack a troublesome town by killing the first-born male in every household.

"Too Jewish," Harvey replies.

"The Field" is a film that makes me think of that line, only this time the comment is: "Too Irish." "The Field" is a film in love with the earnest desperation of the Irish plight, of wet weather and the shadow of British tyranny, of being trod upon and subjected to every awful thing on God's green earth, to the point where you are numbed into not caring.

It helps me not care that the protagonist of the film, one Bull McCabe (Richard Harris), is a rather nasty piece of work who takes out his hard life, and the choices he has made in service to it, on every person around him. Harris was a great actor, and his performance is remarkably poignant given the flimsy material he has to work with. Known for his raging on- and off-screen, Harris sucks you in with McCabe's quiet, sullen magnificence, even when he's just eating sandwiches or hammering a nail. Roger Ebert put it best in his 1990 review: "There is no doubting this is a good performance, but in the service of a hopeless cause."

The key problems in this film include a fatally miscast Sean Bean as McCabe's son Tadhg (he's good at projecting hostility, but not of the stupid kind called for here), a pointless central conflict involving an opportunistic American (Tom Berenger, lost with some key lines obviously foleyed in), and a ridiculously ham-fisted conclusion in which Bull finally explodes in unreasoned fury after his criminal activities come a cropper.

It's a shame, because the movie has something going for it early on, with Harris's galvanic performance and some killer visuals from cinematographer Jack Conroy that pull grim beauty from the bogs and rocks of this fictional patch of Ireland called Carraigthomond. I'm sure the original stage play by John B Keane had much going for it, as it seems something of a national treasure, but way too much of whatever was good in it is drowned out here in the overwrought acting and grim moodiness of Jim Sheridan's direction.

Maybe if McCabe's situation was more sympathetic, the story would have more power. Instead, we are pushed into sharing McCabe's narrow viewpoint until it seems to be telling us the great shame we are witnessing is that Carraigthomond is subject to the same laws of man that shape the rest of the world, and that it would be a finer place if only Yanks, priests, widows, and tinkers weren't allowed to wreck their havoc upon it.

"There's another law, stronger than the common law," McCabe tells us. "The law of the land."

Commenters defending this film seem to be saying this is an Irish thing the rest of the world can't understand, that as McCabe would say, "this is deep, very deep." But it's not, really. A guy wants something he can't have, for whatever reason, and reverts to some sloppy terrorism in his anger.

That "The Field" is grim and angry isn't the problem. That it's so grim and angry over something so pointless as three acres of soggy land is.

Compare with "The Quiet Man"

[lee8301 · 7 July 2003]

It's surprising that none of the comments about "The Field" make reference to one of the most popular films of all time, John Ford's "The Quiet Man". The stories are almost identical. An American of Irish descent returns to buy land wanted by a local farmer. Both Irish farmers are brutish and readily prone to violence. Both inspire fear in their neighbors. In "The Field", the farmer murders the American, but in "The Quiet Man", the American is John Wayne, so you know who will prevail. John Ford's movie is one of remarkably beautiful scenery, of charming folk and peaches and cream complexions. Except for the land-owning farmer, there doesn't seem to be a calloused hand in the cast. Hardly anyone works and drinking seems to be everyone's way of spending the day. Movie fans have spoken of seeing "The Quiet Man" dozens of times, as I have. It's a feel good movie. But "The Field" shows the true harshness of rural life in Ireland and how it brutalizes those poor who struggle for their daily existence. It's an uncomfortable movie but a truthful one which gives the lie to "The Quiet Man's" sentimental view of 'the old country'. It also shows the foolishness inherent in rosy nostalgia. Millions of Irish left their homes for good reason. Unlike John Ford's nostalgia, "The Field" helps you understand why they left.

Shakespeare in Ireland

[thomastd · 7/10 · 29 December 2005]

Visually, this is a stunning movie, filmed on location in the west of Ireland. The scenery is breathtaking, even when viewed, as I did, on TV. It's the perfect backdrop for a story that focuses on the darker side of human nature. A man, Bull McCabe played by Richard Harris, tries to do what he believes to be right. And he IS right, in a certain sense, but he has become obsessed and gradually slips into madness. The field of the title is the tract of land he's worked all his life and which is now being sold to the highest bidder. He cannot accept this, nor that it is being bought by an outsider, an American with Irish roots. The film gives the viewer a powerful sense of the way Irish history (especially the double trauma of the famine and emigration) has shaped the emotions of a man like McCabe. It is as if he carries the whole tragedy of his people within, all the despair finally erupting in a fit of violence. This is where the film takes on an almost Shakespearian hue in the way events roll on like a juggernaut, beyond McCabe's control, deeper and deeper into tragedy. Richard Harris's performance is marvelous, playing McCabe as an Irish King Lear, proud, brutal, willful, but ultimately one of God's creatures: powerless to control his and other peoples lives, and you cannot help but pity him. Among the supporting cast, John Hurt gives an excellent performance, and the rest are certainly adequate. But it seems to me as if their characters stay sketches compared to the full canvas painting of Harris's McCabe. Even Sean Bean as McCabe's son, is very pale, and the sub-plot concerning his involvement with a tinker girl seems a bit contrived, almost trivializing the tension between him and the old man. Also, there seems to me to be a little trouble with the pacing; events go wrong too fast. Maybe too much was lost in the cutting room, as there are some awkward shifts. It's a pity because it tends to turn tragedy into simple accident. Nevertheless, it is a movie well worth seeing, and the first five minutes with the old man and his son gathering sea-weed by the shore, then carrying it across the mountains, in that beautiful Irish landscape, is almost worth the price alone.

A much overlooked classic

[9735062 · 9/10 · 5 March 2001]

The Field is film which carries a universal message about the ongoing struggle between modernity and traditionalism. It is also a uniquely Irish film which may make some of the scenes lack relevance for an international audience. The meaning of such scenes as the "American Wake", which was essentially a death wake which was held for young Irish people up until as recently as the 1960s on the night before they left for America never to be seen again, might be missed by non-Irish people. However the final scene where the Bull McCabe aka Richard Harris attempts to push back the incoming Atlantic tide speaks of the universal futility of man's attempts to control nature or indeed, inevitable progress.An excellent movie.

The grey winds, the cold winds, are blowing where I go.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 4 August 2008]

It's a small, taut, tragic story of Richard Harris, as Bull McCabe, a sclerotic Irish patriarch who plans on buying at auction the grassy field that he and his family have worked on (and died on) for many years. The land is owned by a widow, however, who has been harassed by Harris and his son, Sean Bean, and is determined to see that the McCabe's don't get it. When a wealthy American (Tom Berenger) shows up, interested in building a cement highway across the field, and harnessing the local waterfalls for hydroelectric power, it certainly looks like McCabe isn't going to get it.

Well, McCabe gets it, but not before he accidentally beats Berenger to death and hides the body. It costs him everything he has -- whatever peace of mind he had, his money, his son, his status in the church, his friends, his cattle, and finally his sanity. He who has been virtually running the village, snarling out gruff orders to others, now runs wild, alone, stampeding his cattle over a cliff and onto the rocks below, ranting and screaming like Lear on the moor, driving his son over the cliff as well. After this, still bellowing, McCabe wades out into the sea to his death.

Richard Harris does a bang-up, pretty much overwrought job in this role, which was his last. He looks like Michelangelo's sculpture of Pope Julius II, with his remaining gray hair like an unruly coxcomb atop his head and this beard of Biblical proportions. It's the kind of performance that cries out for an Academy Award nomination. Harris got the nomination but didn't win. It was a depressing story about the small-minded people of an Irish village in the 1930s, flailing about in the rain and mud. Not a big star in it. Who needed it? Though, come to think of it, James Coburn won an award for a similar dramatic role after a similar lifetime career playing support or leads in routine movies. Coburn was good in "Affliction" but Harris does a better job with a more complex role here.

Well, I wasn't surprised that Harris didn't win, nor did I particularly care. Movies about feuds over a plot of land usually don't win Oscars. Usually the awards go to far better films, films with artistic content that illustrate the human condition, thoughtful and challenging films that carry a great deal of philosophical weight -- "Titanic" and "Pearl Harbor," for instance.

If nothing else, "The Field" is a corrective to fairyland presented to us in "The Quiet Man." Having said that, can I still recommend seeing this movie? Not only is Richard Harris great in it, but so is just about everyone else, including John Hurt as a semi-retard, Sean Bean as the sensitive son, Tom Berenger as the not-insensitive rich American, and a host of nameless supporting players.

Yes, it is a small movie about a small thing. But small things can carry stones of symbolic weight. A slap in the face is a small thing.

By Right Of Sweat

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 3 April 2008]

Tenant farmers in Ireland and their problems accounts for some of the great political movements in that country. So it was interesting to learn that in The Field those problems have not gone away even though it's not British who are absentee landlords.

Shot mostly in County Galway in Ireland, The Field certainly has the look and feel of The Quiet Man, but it's hardly in the same lighthearted spirit. In fact the priest in this film functions more like Karl Malden's priest of the docks in On The Waterfront.

Richard Harris has been a tenant farmer working the land for widow Frances Tomelty for years and has raised his family there. It's pretty much accepted by the villagers that it's Harris's land by right of sweat so when the widow wants to sell no one bids against him except Harris's sidekick John Hurt. But American Tom Berenger doesn't know the rules around there and he does bid.

But what Berenger wants to do is develop the place, put some Americanized shopping mall there. Imagine a strip mall on some of that beach-front property that John Ford so lovingly photographed in The Quiet Man and you can understand the feelings there. It all leads to a lot of tragedy.

Originally Harris was supposed to play the priest role that Sean McGinley had and who played it well. The lead was to go to Ray McAnally who had done this role on stage. When McAnally died, Harris was moved up to the lead and responded with an Oscar nominated performance for Best Actor. Harris lost that year to Jeremy Irons in Reversal of Fortune.

Also look for some nice performances here by Sean Bean as Harris's son and Brenda Fricker as his wife. All part of a very violent household.

Religion specifically the Roman Catholic Church takes a beating and The Field does touch on the conservative role of the church in society. It's a generally accepted fact that the Church did its level best to discourage revolutionary activity during the 19th century after the Irish lost their parliament in the Wolfe Tone rebellion. Harris and others in the film comment about how no priests died during the potato famine that they don't know how the tenant farmers live. And Sean McGinley as the village priest is by no means portrayed as a bad man.

There's also bad feelings towards Berenger who is seen as the descendant of people who cut and ran during the Irish troubles. Of course if a lot hadn't emigrated to all points of the globe, there would be a lot more trying to share the land that Harris wants to hold on to.

The Field is a fine drama about Ireland and the problems there that may not have been totally resolved with independence.

Filled with interesting Irish cultural assertions but too many stereotypes

[melody23 · 6/10 · 4 June 2008]

I simply don't like cultural stereotypes -- it's lazy and emotionally stunted thinking. While we are given many extrapolations about the Irish (I'll leave it to the Irish to interpret them), we have a galling stereotype of an American. It's no more "right" than the stereotypes of the Irish seen in some Hollywood films (as a UK reviewer observed). You're insulting my people -- something that isn't right no matter whose people are being insulted. But then one person's bigotry is another's righteous opinion, it would seem.

The film itself is about a half hour too long. Harris is wonderful but then he's always wonderful. The themes and ideas I'll leave to the Irish to judge.

Now enjoy clicking "No" to the review.

A triumph for Richard Harris!

[hi-liter · 10/10 · 23 December 2002]

Spectacular movie. As tough as this movie is, it is completely engrossing. Each character (except that played by Berenger) is just so believable. The Tom Berenger part is just so shallow that it needs better writing or better acting. The cinematography allows you to feel the ambience of the Irish countryside (cool, rainy, overcast, muddy, deep cold lakes). "Bull" is hell bent on getting what he believes are his just rewards for a life of extremely hard work and hardships. It just doesn't work out like Hollywood usually lets it work out (thank goodess!).

What does it take to win an Oscar?

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 6 March 2022]

What a depressing film! After it was over, I couldn't stand to go to bed so depressed, so I popped in my copy of Camelot to see Richard Harris in something more uplifting. Since we all know how that story turns out, that should give you an idea of just how much of a downer The Field is.

With a beautifully authentic setting, complete with endless streams of mist and fog in every shot, this Irish drama follows the timeless theme of Irishmen and their land. In case you have no Irish blood in your veins, or you missed Gone With the Wind, Irish people really care about their land. Richard Harris takes on the starring role of a tenant farmer whose put his blood and sweat into the land, as have generations of men before him. When the wealthy widow landowner decides to auction the land off, he gets understandably upset. If you don't understand, you're not Irish enough to watch this movie. I guarantee you won't like it, so just pick something else this evening. But if it breaks your heart to see the white-haired, wizened, weathered Irishman about to be kicked off the soil he cultivated his entire life, and was hoping to pass onto his troublemaker son Sean Bean, buckle up and get ready to see a career-best performance.

If you didn't know it was Richard Harris, you'd wonder where Hollywood found an old, Irish farmer who could act so well. When he talks about the land, you feel as though you've seen him working it for decades. When he drags seaweed from the ocean to create high-quality fertilizer, you feel his back pain, and you inhale the fog into your own lungs. Since you do know it's Richard Harris, it's very believable that he still has some spunk left in him. He gets in fistfights, he bullies his son about his weakness, and he hasn't spoken to his wife in years.

I love the scene at the dance, when the local bad girl makes a spectacle of herself and asks who is man enough to join her on the dance floor. Richard sees that his son is tempted to answer, but rather than let Sean ruin himself and gain an embarrassing reputation, he steps forward and dances with her himself. Second to their land, Irishmen love securing good futures for their sons.

I can only imagine the losers' party after the 1990 Academy Awards ceremony. Richard Harris, basically giving a "What does it take to win?" performance, Robert De Niro giving his career-best in Awakenings, Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves, the epic that swept seven Oscars, and Gérard Depardieu for his signature role of Cyrano de Bergerac: all four actors must undoubtedly despise Jeremy Irons. If through the 1960s, you never really liked Richard Harris, you'll completely change your mind when you see him in this heavy drama. Be prepared, though. When you think it can't get any darker, it does. One thing hasn't changed about his style: most of his movies are difficult to watch.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to violence and an upsetting scene involving animals, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

One of the most powerful movies I've seen

[afjwa · 10/10 · 19 November 2002]

I checked this movie out of the library after reading an obituary of Mr. Harris. I was totally unfamiliar with it. After viewing it, I found and felt it to be one of the most powerful movies I think I've ever seen. I felt the characterizations were well-played, the metaphor of the field well enunciated without being overpowering, the pace relentless and the ending entirely in keeping with the story. The cinematography was first rate as it emphasized and delineated the brooding, lowering story. While it is for me a very disturbing and thought-provoking film, in the end I came away profoundly moved and touched by it.

seen better, seen worse

[himmelfahrstrasse · 7/10 · 3 August 2017]

The beginning scene where this guy is stuffing his face like a dumb animal.

WHO eats like that??? pretty dumb.. Whenever I see someone eat like that, I think they cannot be too intelligent, because that's how dogs eat. Why would they cast a retard like this guy who eats like a dog. I just cannot get over that scene.

A Real Bring-Me-Down

[gbheron · 4/10 · 6 December 1998]

We rented The Field because Richard Harris had been nominated for the 1990 Best Actor Oscar, and we were in the mood for a good drama. What a bummer of a movie. Sometimes I didn't know if it was being serious as some scenes played like Monty Python sketches. It was as if the playwright was trying to cram as much depressing stuff into each scene (and the movie) as he could. Lot's of it seemingly snatched right out of the blue. Madness, suicide, murder, harassment of poor widows, bullying....all in 107 minutes and a small cast. The ending is a screamer. The family awarded it a 5 out of respect for Richard Harris and John Hurt.